Dampers and louvers are critical to the operational performance of HVAC systems in buildings. Such devices maintain building pressurization, prevent the spread of fire or smoke, and prevent water penetration during a tropical storm or hurricane.
Devices installed in critical locations often require operational certification prior to building occupancy. The International Building Code (IBC), along with the International Fire Code (IFC) and National Fire Protection Agency (NFPA) typically require initial inspection and ongoing inspections on a specified schedule after building occupancy. The existing method of testing requires manual operation at the physical product location which may be inaccessible or difficult to access after the building is complete. Such applications often require hard wiring a test switch to every product, or wiring to a control network wired to a central control system. Fire, smoke and combination fire/smoke dampers are used to protect life and limit property loss during a life safety event. A fire/smoke damper is used with a building air handling system as a prevention device for the spread of fire and smoke. Fire/smoke dampers may be designed to meet or exceed Underwriters Laboratories UL555, UL555C, UL555S, National Fire Protection Association, and California State Fire Marshal requirements in walls, ceilings, and floors. In general, these codes and standards require dampers that are able to stop the passage of flames for a period of 1½ or 3 hours and the leakage of smoke for up to 177° C. (350° F.) in smoke-laden air.
Life safety dampers differ from common commercial control dampers in their overall design and materials of construction, mainly through use of high temperature seals. Life safety dampers are also subject to additional testing not required of non-life safety dampers. Non-life safety dampers are tested by temperature feedback or pressure conditions within the overall system (i.e., if the air within a room is not reaching a temperature set point and the doors do not close, the HVAC system, including dampers, must be checked). On the other hand, life safety dampers must be physically inspected for positional certainty.
Representative of the prior art is U.S. Pat. No. 7,241,218 which discloses a fire/smoke damper control system is provided for use in monitoring and controlling operation of one or more fire/smoke dampers in a building. The system includes a local damper controller associated with each fire/smoke damper for controlling the opening and closing of each fire/smoke damper, a remote router for controlling the operation of one or more local damper controllers, and circuit communication between the remote router and each local damper controller. The control system allows for localized power supply for damper actuation, eliminating the pulling of wire from each damper back to a central power panel.
What is needed is a wireless damper testing and control system comprising a portable controller for communicating with a wireless controller using a predetermined protocol for controlling, detecting and transmitting a device state. The present invention meets this need.